i wanted to continue working, so i called up michael jordan and magic johnson, prince, janet jackson, tracy chapman, oprah winfrey, and i just told them the truth: i need money. and they wrote me a check -- all of them. (narrator) 1994 signaled a return to smaller budgets with "crooklyn" a film about growing up in brooklyn in the 1970's. what we wanted to do is to elevate black cinema to what we've done in music, in sports and everything else. we're not at the level yet because we're in our infancy as far as films go. but another 20 years, we're going to produce our duke ellingtons, our own mary beardons, our james baldwins, people of that stature in film. (jim jarmusch) for us in new york at the time, in the late seventies, it was an idea kind of related to the music scene at the time, which was that we are not virtuoso filmmakers, but we have something we'd like to express. and that desire to express it was more important than having a more professional attitude, or having a lot of experience. (jim jarmusch) when i started thinking about "stranger than paradise," there were severe l